Let me educate you. It goes from freshwater aquifers to the ocean, where it becomes saltwater. A process that cannot be reversed without a metric shit ton of energy. In other words, we're pumping water into the ocean faster than the water cycle brings it back.
And then what happens when it rains, oh wise one?
Draining an aquifer faster than it is being replenished is an issue in some areas, but still doesn't amount to "wasting" water. And the only consequence will be the death of the people who relied on that over-used aquifer, and the subsidence of their land.
Water cannot be wasted. By your brilliant theory all the fresh water would be long-gone forever into the oceans, never to evaporate again.
And then what happens when it rains, oh wise one?
Reading comprehension fail. Go back and reread until you absorb the part about pumping it into the ocean faster than the water cycle brings it back. HINT: laypeople call that "rain."
We should do what we can to heat the globe so the oceans evaporate faster.
(I was 100% joking when I started the sentence, then dropped to about 99.7 by the time I had finished.)
In some places, sure. Most water in the US is taken directly from lakes or rivers.
Artificial lakes that are drying up because we're using more than comes in.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150111/lake-mead-keeps-dropping
That's in the dry part of the country. Most people live in the wet parts where water is extremely abundant. Your experience is limited, go and see the country.
The water in the ocean evaporates, converts to clouds, rains on the land, seeps into the ground and becomes well water all over again.
There is no waste. Only time.
(post is archived)